Channels in Nebula
A Nebula channel is where a goal gets done. Create a channel, see when Nebula replies, pick which agents work in it, and keep its calls and tasks together.
A channel is where a goal gets done. Its people, its agent team, its calls, tasks, apps and devices all live inside it, and Nebula, the orchestrator, runs it for you.
Nebula1 needs you · 1 workingMLCallNebula can you score this week's inbound leads against our ICP and flag the top ten?1 replylast 2h agoNebula: On it. Prospect Researcher is scoring them, and the shortlist will land in this thread.Agents2
Apps
Threads
Yesterday's standup summary1dNebula: Here's the summary of yesterday's standup.What's inside a channel
Open a channel on desktop and the chat fills the middle. The bar along the top of the chat shows who's here right now and holds Call, which starts a call (Open call once one is running). The column on the right holds three boxes: Agents - the channel's team, with buttons to add and manage agents - then Apps, the channel's apps as a launcher, and Threads, the channel's conversations that have a reply or a task, with the channel's jobs folded into its footer. On your phone the same channel is split across five icon tabs at the bottom: Chat, Threads, Calls, Automations and Miniapps. Threads lists the channel's conversations, each holding the tasks its message started.
Agents and the channel's team
Nebula, the orchestrator, runs the channel. It can propose specialists and hand each agent the work that fits.
Calls
Talk the work through live, with Nebula on the call and a recap afterwards.
Tasks
Work handed to agents, run now, on a schedule, or when something happens.
Apps
Small tools Nebula builds for the channel, opened beside the chat.
Devices
The computers the channel's agents work on, including its default device.
Create a channel
Give each goal its own channel: a launch, an on-call rotation, a support inbox. Both apps ask what the channel is for, with an Autonomous switch beside it that starts on, and let you pick the channel's computer and task model while you create it. Desktop also lets you add its agents in the same dialog; on your phone you add them afterwards.
New channel
Who can see it
Everyone in the workspace can find it and join in.
What it's for
Nebula and the channel's agents read this on every turn. You can change it later in the channel's settings.
What its Tasks run on
Each Task started here takes this as its own model, and keeps it. An agent's own model wins over it. Chat and Calls always run Nebula's own model.
Who's in it
Click the + beside Channels in the sidebar and choose Create a channel.
Name it, and pick its icon and colour from the square beside the name. Then choose Workspace or Private under Who can see it. A private channel can't be made public later. Click Next.
Under What it's for, say what the channel is for and what done looks like, or leave it blank. Autonomous starts on, so Nebula works toward that purpose on its own; switch it off if you'd rather Nebula only works when asked (see Autonomous channels). Click Next.
Under What its Tasks run on, the first row names your workspace's default, such as Workspace default (Nebula Flash 16), and keeps following it if the default changes. Leave it, or pick another model your workspace offers, such as one added from the catalog. Each task started in the channel keeps the model it started on, and an agent's own model wins over it. Chat and calls always run Nebula's own model. Click Next.
Under Who's in it, add People, pick Agents for the channel's team, and choose the Computer its agents work on. The Computer row starts on New cloud device, made for the channel when you create it; pick an existing device or click Use this computer. Then click Create channel.
On your phone, swipe up the panel at the bottom of the screen the app opens on, then tap + next to Channel (or Add channel under your channels) and Create channel.
Name it. Under Who can read it, choose Shared (everyone in the workspace) or Private (you and who you invite). Under Device, keep New cloud device, made for the channel when you create it, or pick one you have. Pick an Icon and Colour, then tap Next.
Under What it's for, say what the channel is for, or leave it blank. Autonomous starts on, so Nebula works toward that purpose on its own; switch it off if you'd rather Nebula only works when asked. Tap Next.
Under What its Tasks run on, keep Workspace default (Nebula Flash 16), named after your workspace's default, or pick another model your workspace offers, such as one added from the catalog. A model you connected yourself is listed only once it's shared with the workspace (see Models). Tap Next. Check the Review and tap Create Channel. To add agents afterwards, tap the faces at the top of the channel.
Set the goal first
The first thing to do in a new channel is set its goal with the orchestrator. Click Call in the bar at the top of the chat (on your phone, the Calls tab or the phone button in the channel's header) and talk the goal through with Nebula, or tell Nebula in the chat what the channel is for and what done looks like. Nebula hands each task to the agent on the channel's team that comes closest to it, even when the fit isn't exact. Only when the team is empty, or nobody on it could do the work, does Nebula get one: it adds a fitting agent from the workspace or creates one, then hands it the task. It may check with you first, and it doesn't create agents for work nobody asked for, unless you've made the channel Autonomous. Coding, or work on your own computer, goes to a coding agent such as Claude Code or Codex on one of your devices. Nebula can also propose specialists for ongoing roles, and creates those when you agree.
What you type under What it's for when you create the channel is a starting point, and you can leave it blank. Either way, Nebula keeps its own short note of what the channel is for, and rewrites it as the work moves on, so you can refine the goal the same way whenever the work changes. The note shows as Purpose in the channel's settings, under General on desktop, where the channel's creator or an admin can edit it, on desktop or your phone. It's also the line under the channel's name in Browse channels. Agents in the channel read it as context.
If nobody has said what a channel is for, Nebula asks once, alongside a reply, with its best guess. A channel named for its work, like quarterly-close, needs no question: Nebula notes the purpose and tells you what it noted. Later, when a task succeeds in a channel with nothing on a schedule, Nebula may offer once to run it regularly, and sets that up only if you say yes.
Autonomous channels
Turn on Autonomous and Nebula works toward the channel's purpose without waiting to be asked: "Nebula will proactively work toward this channel's purpose." About every half hour it checks in on the channel by itself and does the first of these that fits:
Starts the next step. It hands the next useful piece of work as a task to the agent on the channel's team closest to it: the next batch, a follow-up on what a result found, or a recurring job. Only when the team is empty does it add an agent from the workspace or create one; when the team has agents but none can take the step, it says what the channel needs instead. It won't start a task that repeats one already done or running here.
Says what the channel needs. When the work is waiting on people, such as a decision, access or a fact, it lays out what's ready and what's needed, and tags whoever a step needs.
Suggests an idea. Now and then it proposes something concrete that moves the purpose forward.
It stays silent while a task toward the purpose is running, while its last question to someone is still unanswered, and while people are in the middle of a conversation, and it never posts a status update that asks nothing of anyone. After a few check-ins that posted or started work with nothing new, it waits until someone posts or a task turns up something new; a check-in where it stayed silent doesn't count toward that. The number of tasks it starts per check-in and per day is limited, and those tasks use Nebula Credits like any other task.
When someone in the channel says they'll do something by a certain time, such as "I'll send the deck by Friday", Nebula checks in when that comes due, without waiting for the half hour: it looks at whether it happened, and if it didn't, it asks the person who said it or starts it with the team.
A check-in runs as the channel's creator. It can start work on their own computer only the way their scheduled work can: after asking them, or straight away once they've turned on Let scheduled work run on this computer for that device (see Computer use).
A new channel starts with Autonomous on, on desktop and on your phone, so Nebula works toward its purpose without waiting to be asked. Switch it off while you create the channel, or later, if you'd rather Nebula only works when asked. Anyone who can see the channel can switch it, in the new-channel dialog or under Purpose in the channel's settings (General on desktop), on desktop or your phone. DMs and channels shared with another company don't have it, and an archived channel has to be restored first. If the channel's creator leaves the workspace, it switches itself off.
Your Nebula DM (Home) has the same switch, captioned "Nebula will proactively check in and keep your work moving." When you set up your first workspace, Home starts with it on, so Nebula can follow up while you get set up, and it switches itself off once you're done.
When Nebula replies, and when it stays quiet
Every channel is run by your workspace's one Nebula, the orchestrator. In a channel you share with other people, Nebula doesn't reply to every message. It stays quiet so people can talk to each other, and answers when something is aimed at it.
Nebula answers when you tag it, start with its name ("Nebula, …"), or reply to one of its messages. It also picks up your follow-up right after it answers you, your answer to a question it asked, and, in a thread it's part of, any question, request or correction. A request put to the whole room that isn't aimed at a particular person can reach it too, and Nebula picks it up if it's something to do, find out, check or answer.
A conversation between people is left alone. A message that tags a person belongs to that person, so Nebula stays out of it. If it also tags an agent and asks that agent to do something, the agent answers; if it only mentions the agent to the person ("@Leo, can you get @Prospect Researcher to rerun it?"), it stays the person's. In a thread, thanks, agreement and people discussing its answer with each other don't get a reply.
Leo, did legal sign off on the pricing page copy?
Yesterday afternoon. We're clear to publish.
Nebula, pull together the ten accounts most likely to upgrade when we launch, with a reason for each.
On it. I've handed the upgrade shortlist to Prospect Researcher, and it'll report back in this thread when it's done.
Where you are changes how chatty Nebula is.
| Nebula replies to | |
|---|---|
| Your Nebula DM (Home) | Every message |
| A channel only you can read | Every message |
| A shared channel | Messages aimed at it |
| A DM between two people | Only when someone tags it or calls it by name |
To reach a specialist agent instead, tag it. A workspace agent that isn't on the channel's team yet joins it when you send, if you're allowed to add it. The rules are on Agents and your channel's team.
Quick answers, and work that becomes a task
Nebula handles conversation, questions about past messages, quick web searches and simple lookups right there in the chat. Anything bigger becomes a task, run by the agent you tagged, or by the agent on the channel's team that Nebula picks as closest to the work, even when the fit isn't exact. Only if the team is empty, or nobody on it could do the work, does Nebula get one: it adds a fitting agent from the workspace or creates one, and may check with you first. It never does the task work itself. Nebula keeps the task in a thread on the message that asked for it, so the main chat stays readable. On desktop, the thread bar under that message shows when a task is at work and marks what it made, such as files, charts, apps and pull requests, and the thread lists its tasks at the top. The task keeps running while you carry on talking, and its result comes back to that thread when it's finished, as one message from the agent that did the work, with its files and links attached. Follow it on Tasks.
Ask about something said elsewhere, and Nebula can search past messages beyond this channel. In a channel other people can read, that search covers this channel and the workspace's shared channels you can see, but never your Home, your DMs or other private channels, so what's in them never reaches the room.
Post in another channel
Nebula can reach other channels for you. Ask it to share something in another channel you can post in, or to start or continue work there, and it does it as you. Say "my Home" or "my Nebula DM" to send something to your own private channel. Nebula never creates a channel this way.
Nebula, let #eng know the pricing page shipped this morning, with a link to the launch checklist.
Posted in #eng: the pricing page shipped this morning, with the launch checklist linked.
Channels shared with another company
A shared channel connects your workspace with one other company's. The workspace that started it hosts it, and people from both sides talk in the same channel; whoever joins from the other side sees its whole history. For now, shared channels work in the desktop app only.
When another company invites you, the invite waits at the bottom of your channel list, in whichever workspace you have open, naming the channel and who sent it. Accept it for one of your workspaces, or Decline. Only a workspace's owners and admins can accept for it: if you don't run one, Ask an admin passes it to your workspace's admins, who see the same invite with your name on it. New to Nebula? Sign up from the invite email, and desktop asks you to name your own workspace first, then accept the invite for it.
The first time you open a channel another company hosts, a card reads #channel is hosted by that company and spells out the rules: its agents take requests only from its own people, and it keeps the channel. The member list shows each workspace in its own column, marked Host and External, and every face carries its workspace.
A shared channel has no Autonomous switch. If either company's owners or admins cut the link, the channel stays with the host and the other side's people lose it. Calls can bring in outside guests too: see Calls.
Channel settings at a glance
On desktop, click the gear (Channel settings) on the channel's own tab, beside its name. Settings opens as a tab beside the chat. Most of its sections work the way you'd expect. These are the ones specific to Nebula.
| Section | What it controls | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| General | Besides the name and icon, the channel's Purpose, the Autonomous switch and the Task model its tasks run on | Models |
| Agents | Nebula plus the agents on this channel's team, + Create agent and Manage agents | Agents |
| Apps | The apps on this channel, and adding more | Apps |
| Jobs | Every job in the channel, with Run now, Pause and Delete for their owners | Tasks |
| Skills | This channel's own slash commands | Skills |
| Devices | The computers this channel's agents use, and its default | Devices |
On your phone, the gear at the top of a channel opens its settings, including Devices. Agents are one tap away on the faces beside it.
Not sure how to set a channel up? Ask Nebula. It can add agents to the team, attach a device or build an app for the channel. For bugs or feature requests, email support@nebula.gg. Nebula can help you draft the message.
Channels nobody uses archive themselves
A channel that goes 30 days with nothing happening in it is archived for you, so your list stays the ones you're actually working in. A week before that - at 23 days - everyone who might care gets a notice reading #channel will be archived in 7 days, with "Nobody has used it for over 23 days. Post in it to keep it open." If it does get archived, the notice reads #channel was archived.
Anything counts as use: a message in the channel, a reply in a thread, or a task posting into it. One post resets the clock and clears the warning.
Posting in an archived channel brings it straight back, with the threads that were put away. On desktop, the channel's creator or an admin can also restore one by hand: click the ⋯ beside the + next to Channels in the sidebar, choose Archived channels, then Restore. A channel you archive yourself stays archived - posting doesn't revive that one, because you meant it.
This only reaches shared and private channels. Your Nebula DM (Home), DMs with people and the workspace's default channel are never archived this way - and nor is a channel with a live call, a running job or a card still waiting on someone, however quiet it looks.
These notices go to your Inbox only - no email and no phone buzz, because a channel nobody has opened in a month isn't worth waking you for. Who hears about it: whoever created the channel, plus anyone who posted in the last 90 days.
Common questions
Related
Put Nebula to work
Get Nebula on your computer or phone, then create your first channel and set its goal.
Quickstart: your first channel
Create your first Nebula channel, set a bounded goal, follow its task and review the result. Learn where to find any specialists Nebula creates.
Agents and your channel's team
Create and manage specialist agents in Nebula channels. Tag agents, choose their tools and instructions, change the team and control who can use them.